Recipes and Stories from a hungry French girl

Cherry Cake from The Vosges Mountains

This rustic-looking Cherry cake has an incredibly light and airy texture – much like an angel food cake- with cherry jewels inside. It simply lets the plump stone-fruits shine, and is the perfect ending to a summer dinner.

Originating from the Alsace Region of France, I like to think of this light Cherry Cake from the Vosges Montains as the summer (and lighter!) version of the famous Black Forest Cake. And it makes sense, when you know that the uplifts of The Vosges Montains – stretching along the German border – face the uplifts of the mythical Black Forest – located on the German side.

Along with other delicious stone fruits, such as damsons and mirabelle plums, cherries are specifically Alsace-based crops and all hold pride of place in the region’s gastronomic heritage. In jams, baked goods or canned, cherries account for a significant part of the activity in the sector. And let’s not forget to mention the production of Kirsch, the traditional liquor made from fermented cherries with their stones.

Traditionally made with the local sour Morello cherries, you can make this recipe with any cherry variety of your choosing. Pick your cherries plump, soft and as dark as possible.

Pre-cooking the cherries in a small sauce pan makes them render their juices, so they don’t render it later in the cake batter. Adding the cherry juice to the cake batter really gives a subtle, sweet note to the cake.

Note: My husband is not a fan of cherries and simply does not care for Cherry clafoutis and such. But he actually loved this cake! So, for people who are not fans of the flan-like consistency of the clafoutis, I say this cake is a winner!

I hope you enjoy this Cherry Cake from The Vosges Mountains as much I do, Bon appétit!

Ingredients

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, cream together ¼ cup of butter (60g) with ¼ cup of sugar (50g) .

Separate the egg yolks and the egg whites. Keep the whites aside, and add in the egg yolks to the creamed butter and suga. Whisk fast until silky smooth.

Add in the flour, and only half of the baking powder (1 tsp), whisk well. Slowly add the milk (small addition by small addition, whisking well between additions). Set aside in the fridge.

Place your cherries (halved and pitted) in a small saucepan, over medium-low heat. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on top (1/2 cup) and cover with a lid. Right when it starts to simmer, remove from the heat and let it cool down.

Preheat your oven to 330F.

Beat the egg whites (firm peak). Take your cake batter out of the fridge and blend in the juice from the cherries (to make the batter a touch more fluid). Slowly, fold in the egg whites.

Spread ¾ of the cherries at the bottom of your pan (that you greased and floured). Cover them with the cake batter, and sprinkle the rest of the cherries on top.

Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, until it is lightly golden.

Once baked, let your cake cool down on a rack for about 10 minutes (no more) and remove it from the pan once it is still warm.

For serving, dust with some icing sugar.

MY NOTES...

This cake is best enjoyed still warm (but is still very good at room temperature).

2 comments

ChristinaJuly 19, 2017 - 5:29 am

Hi! Your cake looks so lovely. Do you think I could do this with cherries I have frozen? I bought a huge box from a local farm earlier this summer and pitted and froze two gallon size bags. I’m hoping I can make this cake with some of them. Thank you!

Hi Christina! To be honest, I have never tried making this cake with frozen cherries, but (and I hate to be negative here!) I wouldn’t recommend it. Even if you thaw and drain the cherries thoroughly, they would likely remain too wet. And because this cake has very light and airy texture (like an angel-food cake), I fear the cake would become mushy. You can easily swap cherries with other stone-fruits though (plums, mirabelles, apricots, etc..)!